Meanwhile, the city’s fourth-grade math results were virtually flat, with 52 percent of students passing the exam, compared to 51.8 percent last year.

But statewide, the percentage of fourth-graders making the grade in math dropped 1.5 percentage points, to 67.6 percent from 69.1 percent.

City students are still scoring some 20 percentage points worse than kids in more affluent suburban school districts – but better than in other cities such as Buffalo.

“New York City has been more successful than districts in other [areas] at increasing the percentage of students meeting the standards,” state officials said in the report, which will be formally released by the state Education Department today.

The office of Schools Chancellor Joel Klein had no immediate comment.

The improvement continues a trend. In July, then-Schools Chancellor Harold Levy reported that the number of students in third, fifth, sixth and seventh grade passing the math exam jumped 3.6 percentage points – to 35.3 percent from 31.7 percent.